


Where the Vengeance Ends

by Draycevixen



Category: The Professionals
Genre: Christmas, M/M, Older Lads
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-29
Updated: 2015-12-29
Packaged: 2018-05-10 06:01:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 588
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5573524
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Draycevixen/pseuds/Draycevixen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>I offered 12 days of ficlets to my friends. </p><p>Shooting2kill's request is in the notes at the end of the story. </p><p>By the time he'd signed the last report it was after 9:00pm so when Bodie suggested meeting him at the pub for a celebratory pint it had seemed like a really good idea.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Where the Vengeance Ends

**Author's Note:**

  * For [shooting2kill](https://archiveofourown.org/users/shooting2kill/gifts).



By the time he'd signed the last report it was after 9:00pm so when Bodie suggested meeting him at the pub for a celebratory pint it had seemed like a really good idea. 

Trying to edge his way through the Christmas Eve crowd without ruining his suit in the process, he was having second thoughts. 

"Ray! Over here!"

The crowds suddenly parted like the Red Sea, a Christmas miracle, and he spotted Bodie sitting at a table, two pints of bitter in front of him. Bodie's record of being the jammiest of bastards remained undefeated. 

With apologies to the old codger with a battered suitcase that had to move it to let him get past, he eased into the seat across from Bodie, breathing a heavy sigh of relief before draining half of his pint. 

"Easy there, sailor."

He meant to glare at Bodie but smiled at him instead, despite himself. 

"Here's to two days off in a row, Ray." They clinked their glasses together and both drank deeply. "If everything stays quiet."

Ray's phone started chirping. This time he had no trouble glaring at Bodie. "You had to bloody say it, didn't you?" He fished his mobile out of his pocket, checked the screen and relaxed again before handing it to Bodie. "It's a Christmas greeting from Murphy, wishing us something anatomically improbable at our age."

"The daft bugger." Bodie was grinning like a kid as he read Murphy's rude text. "I don't think you spell it that way."

Ray took an elbow to the back of the head accompanied by a slurred "sorry, mate" and he was done with the pub. He drained what was left in his glass. "Let's get out of here."

 

He'd sent his driver home to his family, so they walked through the surprisingly quiet streets, close enough that their shoulders brushed occasionally, stopping to admire some of the shop window displays.

Christmas made him nostalgic. "Do you ever miss the old days, Bodie?"

"No."

"Really?"

"I miss being that fit of course—"

He didn't have to look to know Bodie was subconsciously sucking in his stomach.

"— but I don't miss being that angry."

Bodie had been explosive at times but Ray had never thought of him as particularly 'angry.' That had been his problem. "What d'you mean?"

"That old man, the one you had to manoeuvre past?"

"What about him?"

"Krivas."

"You're bloody joking." He stopped walking and turned to stare at Bodie. "You're not joking. But he's only our age."

"Prison'll age you and he was never as good looking as us to begin with."

"And we just happened to be at the same pub as him?" Cowley had taught him not to believe in coincidences and he wasn't about to start now. 

"I got the alert from the Home Office today that he'd been released and I followed him there." 

"Why didn't you say anything to him, to me?"

"What's the point? It's all water under the bridge." Bodie raised his hand to rub his fingers lightly along Ray's broken cheekbone, a gesture that had become familiar and dear to him with the passing years. "I'm not going to put him on my Christmas card list or anything rash like that but he got forty years in Wormwood Scrubs and I got you."

Bodie would never stop surprising him. "C'mon, let's go home." Ray tucked his arm through Bodie's. "I may not be able to spell it any better than Murph did but I can still do it."

**Author's Note:**

> Shooting2kill's prompt: _Bodie and Doyle bump into Krivas._


End file.
